Morgoth

I'm pretty sure DA was initiated on Bioware's behalf. They have a lot of autonomy within the EA group, so I don't think this decision (full VO) was forced upon them. It's also about the style of storytelling. You can do so much more when you also show something. Wouldn't make much sense to have all that cinematographical stuff when all characters are mute.

Yeah, these days VO is a given, but that doesn't change my point that production costs are stunting the growth of the genre. And frankly, as I enjoy reading, I wouldn't mind if a big budget RPG was released with more limited or no voice acting. Furthermore, whether there is VO or not is kind of beside the point of whether I enjoy a game or not. It's the perceived quality of the writing (and the VO, as the case may be) that determines my enjoyment of an entertainment product. No VO, no camera-points-to-the-face-talk, no real acting. Alot of the performance would be gone, and that would be a step back rather than forward. I don't think Bio wants that, and even less considering they're also making console versions. Voice acting breathes a lot depth and personality into the characters, and I wouldn't want to miss it these days anymore.

Yeah, and Mass Effect has none of that. I chose not to play that crap. Took me 12 hours for the first play-through, the main story, that is. I can only hope though that DA offers more interesting quests besides the main story. Funny that you use the term "graphical shinies". DA does seem to look a bit dated, technically speaking. And VO is a given, or do you want your characters doing mime play? Torment was more a novel, less a game. I wouldn't have the patience for that kind of games these days. DA will be as long as the story makes sense. And that is alrighty in my book.

It would be even more immersive (!) if I could play a GoGo Yubari Undercover princess. That would seriously rock!

They're making their games as long as the story makes sense. There's no need to artificially extend it by having additional grinding or sandbox style walks. Just face it: Nobody's gonna play a 100 hour game these days. I expect DA to be around 20 hours long (with most of the quests done), and hopefully some replayability thanks to the origin stories (albeit I'm a bit skeptical on that).

Or perhaps Bioware was never keen on making sandbox style games. And any attempts "inbetween".

I wonder why the US is so quite about this whole conflict?

You don't have to care, I'm just pointing out that you are dead wrong. It's especially amusing that you're saying that no roleplaying mattered and then directly saying that you didn't play it through more than once. Bravo! What are you trying to say? I remember that love interest with that bald woman (even married her), but beyond that I can't remember any quality roleplaying anymore.

This is simply false. There is a lot more reactivity in MotB than there is in Mass Effect, and the roleplaying most definetely matters. In fact, its choices and consequences are one of the most celebrated aspects of the game. Just look at the different endings and the variations regarding how you treat the curse, what happens to your companions etc. There are a lot of permutations there, especially considering it's an expansion. Maybe. Maybe not. I didn't care to play it several times, therefor I don't know the various ends. So? I liked Mass Effect's take more. Should I protect the counsel vessel, or should I go for that space crab? Should I convince Saren that he's wrong, or should I just plain and simple fight him? I liked that sort of decisions more, because I got to see results. What was the MoTB ending again? Some shawow man dude? I already forgot. Hmm.

I remember playing Tribes Vengeance. That was some kick-ass game, but beyond that I never played any other Tribes. Is it similar to Vengeance?

Yeah, sounds like a kaputt Hard disk.

I have no idea where you got notion that AP would be a NOLF clone. And I've no idea what you're trying to get at. Peace.

What Spider said. In addition, creating game engines for modern games (i.e. AAA games) is incredibly complex, and as such, you need a lot support from the platform holder and hardware developers to get your tech up and running with all the driver interfaces that communicate with a PC. Now I heard that things got a bit more easier since Mac's also use Intel CPUs, but there's still the issue with the graphics API. If I'm correct, Linux and Macs still require openGL to use that, and unless you haven't build you render engine from ground up using OpenGL (like John Carmack still does, Rage will be released on Mac as well), I don't see why you should take the extra effort/team to make an emulator that works on Macs as well. Again, if you're serious about gaming, you probably want to do it on consoles or Windows-based PCs.

Sure. I'm looking forward to it. But I won't drool and rave over Obsidian before I haven't played it. They still need to proof themself with their own creation! There're indeed elements that feel sometimes copy & paste, but at least it's high quality stuff they're copy & pasting, heh? Better than "original" stuff which is badly designed/written. But perhaps it's just that I don't notice too much, or that I'm not so picky about these things, thus enjoying it more.

The same, but way too easy, thus worse. MotB had some very good writing indeed, but that alone doesn't make the game a superior RPG, not in my opinion. Didn't bother to play MotB twice, because I already knew the story, and there was hardly any roleplaying that mattered. (hey, in ME, I could force saren to shoot himself! Only found that out during my third play through) Worse, Obsidian games seem to be inconsistend. at least Bio games usually improve in terms of character presentation (performance) and roleplaying. While in Obsidian games it goes from very good (kotor2) to mediocre( NWN2) to excellent (MoTB) to crap (SoZ). What's next huh?

Perhaps you're just spoiled and set your standards too high? Fine. I just think it's funny that people always love to point out the weaknesses of Bio games (combat, which imo improved vastly in ME - I like action based combat just more), while ignoring the atrocious combat we've seen in Kotor2 (actually worse than Kotor1) and the NWN2 games. And yes, the whole character performance is better in Bio games. This matters to me. Or do we have yet to endure another NWN2 expansion with completely outdated NPCs before Obsidian can finally enter the fray with some real game?

The writing and roleplaying is generally pretty bad in Bioware's games. What's better about the NPC interaction in BG2 is that they actually interacted with you, as opposed to functioning as magical monologue dispensing machines that only work at certain designated plot points, or at level up. "oh, look you saved some planet I never visited! Now I can reveal my innermost thoughts and feelings to you, even though you've kept me shut in the cargo bay for the entire game. Let's bump uglies!" If you think writing in Bio games is bad, you obviously never played Fallout 3 (mediocre), Gothic (functual), Rise of the Argonauts (already forgot, see?), NWN2 (Kelhgar was cool, anybody else) or SoZ (crap). The list goes on. It may not be the best, but it's compelling, and it works within the roleplaying boundaries. And that's all that matters. Dialog quality is overrated. It's the whole performance that matters, and in that case Bio is currently unsurpassed in terms of RPGs.

Except that Bioware never needed to release a day 0 patch. You must confuse those with the gentleman at Obsidian (day 0 patch for NWN2).

It's not really the story that stands between me and the game, more like the retared gameplay. Why is it that there're still games made that treat someone like an idiot?

"Clearly you are easily persuaded by a marketing machine" No, I'm clearly persuaded by the constant quality Bioware delivers. And knowing that this is the core team that worked on BG series and NWN, and knowing fantasy is what makes the Bioware pudding , I've reason to get excited like a little schoolgirl. After all, there're not that many RPGs out there to look forward too, and no, old boring crap made from Russia/Germany doesn't count here either.

Truth. And here's a new Dragon Age interview with some new footage! Click Includes weird bearded dwarfes and seductive fiends! Oh god this game is so gonna rock!

Well, I know (when questioned) that Dgaider and a lot of Bio folks would be very keen on making a SR RPG. Why not? After all, DA will be a "dark and mature" attempt at RPGs as well, so why not letting them do a SR RPG as well? Sure I'd personally prefer Obsidian as well, but it's still more likely a MS/Bio combo since they worked together so long already.

Fine. I still don't want AP to be a NOLF clone though. Let AP be AP!

NWN2 runs on Vista flawlessly, and I seem to remember that NWN1 (patched to the latest version) also runs on Vista.

But that's the point - campiness doesn't really allow to develop a character outside of being campy. [citation needed] You start!